Word just in yesterday from Prince Harry’s people. They say the prince thoroughly enjoyed his recent visit to the UK where he had tea with the King and felt warmly received; the Prince says: “I very much look forward to visiting in the future, on any terms, whenever others deem it appropriate.”

No, I bet that’s not what he said. The clue is there’s not a whiff of, “I’m doing my bit to reconcile and they’re not doing theirs and my conscience is clear so it’s all on them anyway.” What the would-be returning prodigal son is understood to have actually said was: “The men in grey suits are sabotaging my reunion with my father.” Hmm, not just a far from useful intervention but, for many reasons, precisely the wrong thing to say at this time.

Let’s start with the most obvious one: Harry still wants to blame anyone but himself for his exit from the royal family. Five years on from taking the “freedom flight” (can we just remind ourselves of the video the Sussexes took of themselves on a private jet, fleeing the country of their incarceration, whispering at the camera like excited defectors) he has still not got the message that his excommunication was entirely his own choice.

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He has got the message that he can’t keep trashing his closest family (half of whom are in recovery from cancer, all of whom are more popular than him, including William — in America) but for Harry that simply creates a vacancy for No 1 villain and obstacle to his happiness. Who to blame now for the fact that there isn’t an instantaneous thawing of relations?

It can’t be the result of his own actions that his brother and sister-in-law (stuffy Kate who winces when she has to share her lip gloss) and stepmother the Queen (dangerous and self-interested) are wary of trusting him again. Harry doesn’t get that there’s more on people’s minds here than being upstaged by Meghan’s radiance. He can’t see why, when his trip to the UK a couple of weeks ago was such a success the royal family are not in full rapprochement mode, calling emergency summits to discuss how soon they can get their most valuable asset — Harry the charmer — back on the team. So, it makes perfect sense that he should go full circle and point the finger at the staff; the royal household aides; the people his mother Diana first christened the “men in grey suits”.

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Which brings us to the second point. Harry using the phrase his mother used is both incendiary (I’m still dealing with the forces of darkness that ultimately killed my mother) and delusional. She was a breath of fresh air in a stuffy, dated institution who shook up the etiquette and expectations of the time, yes we’re all agreed on that, but Harry thinks that’s what he’s done… by leaving and getting a deal with Netflix. He was on a path to being something like his mother in her finest hours, and then he wasn’t because he chose to abandon his birthright, and although we were told by the Sussexes back in 2020 that there are “other ways to serve”, those turn out to be the same ways, slimmed down dramatically, plus a lot of kissing and telling and documentaries about polo. There’s that fatal entitlement again plus an astonishing absence of perspective.

These men in grey suits — Harry doesn’t stop to think — are ultimately doing his father’s bidding. When they say, for example, the King’s diary is full on the day that Harry wants to pop in, then that’s done with the King’s approval. Because he is busy and presumably (he’s only human) fed up of falling into line whenever Harry decides to launch a re-entry mission.

Still, Harry would rather blame a shadowy character, played by Pip Torrens with a leather binder and highly polished brogues, for coming between him and his father than take any responsibility. There’s only one person who came between him and the King, with a little help from Meghan, and he’s got ginger hair and a vast chip on his shoulder. I’m sure, by the way, the royal household are entirely team Damage Limitation and he’s the damage. They’re probably about as enthusiastic about a Harry rehabilitation plan in the future as they are about the prospect of negotiating the backdoor comings and goings of the Yorks at Christmas (oof). I bet they call him Spare Us, or something a lot ruder (though their real corkers are probably reserved for the Duchess of York). But what the men in suits think of Harry is neither here nor there; if Charles wanted his errant son close now, I think we all know what would happen.

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There’s something else too about this latest “men in grey suits” bombshell. It’s the fact that it’s not a bombshell, it’s just the next round in this increasingly dull and childish moanathon. It has the same tone as a young adult blaming their parents for “letting them” pick the wrong A-levels; or the not-so-young adult who emerges from therapy aged 40 to beat up their parents for not lending them the car that time they really needed it. Harry has tested everyone’s patience while somehow not losing our affection, but now he’s entering high-risk territory. There’s a very real possibility that we’re getting bored of him.